FOB Pentagon Big Loser In Korea

[Cross-posted from European Tribune – where dissent is NOT troll rated!]

Trump makes his deal with the last Communist regime to end Armistice of 27th July 1953 in the Koreas. Comparable deal with Russia in the offing on Ukraine?
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Trump says U.S. to stop war games with S. Korea | Xinhua News |

The United States will stop conducting war games with South Korea, U.S. President Donald Trump said here Tuesday after a historic summit with Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Answering questions at a press conference at the Capella Hotel in Singapore’s resort island of Sentosa, where his meeting with Kim took place, Trump said it is not part of the equation now to bring home the U.S. soldiers stationed in South Korea.

But “we will be stopping the war games … unless and until we see the future negotiation is not going along like it should,” he said. He added that such military drills are “very expensive” and “very provocative.”

The DPRK has consistently denounced the military drills as a dress rehearsal for northward invasion.

Trump said South Korea contributed to the “expensive” war games, adding that if the war games stop, significant costs could be saved.

The annual South Korea-U.S. military drills are carried out twice in spring and fall. This year, the springtime war games were conducted in April, delayed due to South Korea hosting the Winter Olympics. The autumn military drills were scheduled for August.

What’s next for US troops in S. Korea? A look at possible scenarios | Stars & Stripes |

More below the fold …

Singapore part of Malaysia? US red-faced after `reunification’ blunder in Pompeo comments | South China Post |

The US State Department published on its website remarks made Monday by top diplomat Mike Pompeo ahead of the historic meeting, in a post initially stating they were delivered at a hotel in “Singapore, Malaysia”.

○ US State Department lists Singapore as part of Malaysia in press transcript

The wealthy financial hub and its larger neighbour were part of the same country for two years in the 1960s until Singapore was expelled over ethnic divisions with Malaysia, and they have been separate nations ever since.

The slip-up was quickly corrected after it started to go viral but not before triggering sniggers from netizens, with one Facebook user lamenting: “To the average American, the world is America.”

Ivanka Trump’s `Chinese proverb’ tweet leaves China totally baffled | South China Moring Post |

Ivanka, the daughter of US President Donald Trump, had posted on her Twitter account on Monday: “`Those who say it can not be done, should not interrupt those doing it.’ – Chinese Proverb”

The tweet, which was pinned to the top of her Twitter account, came hours ahead of her father’s historic summit meeting with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore. Ivanka Trump made no reference to the meeting, but many internet users immediately assumed her post was linked.

“Those who say it can not be done, should not interrupt those doing it.” -Chinese Proverb

— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) June 11, 2018

Twitter is blocked in mainland China, but screenshots of the tweet soon went viral on the social media site Weibo as users debated the origin of the quotation.

Most Chinese internet users guessed it was a wrong translation of the common Chinese proverb: “Do unto others as you would have them done unto you” from the Analects of Confucius.

Other top candidates included “Those who accomplish great things do not seek opinions from the ordinary” from The Book of Lord Shang.

Another phrase suggested was coined by the former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping: “Empty talk harms the nation. Practical actions help it thrive.”